Busting some false narratives about Aidan Hutchinson with Nick Baumgardner

Whenever there’s a top-tier prospect in the NFL Draft, they are going to have their game completely picked apart by the time the actual draft comes around. Invariably, that leads to over-criticism of some of the best athletes college football has to offer. The process is just too long, and there are too many voices talking over each other for unfair—or completely untrue—opinions to hit the national narrative. And when there’s no clear No. 1 prospect, as was the case with the 2022 class, those talking points will only grow louder.

By now, we know a heck of a lot about Detroit Lions second overall pick Aidan Hutchinson. Many of us spent years watching him ascend at the University of Michigan. We have seen the behind-the-scenes video of his draft day journey and have heard stories of his leadership, energy, and high level of play at Lions minicamp.

But we wanted to go even deeper on Hutchinson this week, so we talked to The Athletic’s Nick Baumgardner—the perfect guest for all things Aidan Hutchinson. Baumgardner has split his time over the past few years on the University of Michigan and Detroit Lions beat, and has shown a detailed understanding of line play on both sides of the ball.

On Thursday night, Baumgardner joined us to put some false narratives about Hutchinson to bed, speculate on how the Lions may use him in Year 1 of his NFL career, and discuss the floor and ceiling of the second overall pick.

You can listen to our conversation below. You won’t hear a more informed conversation about Aidan Hutchinson anywhere else: guaranteed or your money back!

This was the final installment of our Lions draft review series with college beat writers. If you missed any of them, you can go back and listen to them here:

• Jameson Williams with Travis Reier
• Josh Paschal with Nick Roush
• Kerby Joseph with Bob Asmussen
• James Mitchell with Andy Bitter
• Malcolm Rodriguez with Scott Wright
• James Houston with Tiger Talk
• Chase Lucas with Hod Rabino

Subscribe to the PODcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or iHeartRadio. Follow Pride Of Detroit on Twitch to get notified when we record the PODcast live and chat with us. Video replays are available on both Twitch and YouTube.